You’ve definitely met a boy whose entire personality is his Boiler Room set
Whether you know Fred again or not, you are bound to have heard his music before. Prior to lockdown, under his real name, Fred Gibson, he produced a multitude of songs for artists from Ed Sheeran to Stormzy, Burna Boy to Aitch. However since 2020 and launching a solo career as Fred again, you are more likely to have seen clips of the 29-year-old musician DJing over a set of decks, with thousands of people dancing around him under his spell.
Despite having never been on tour before, his sold-out Boiler Room set in July quickly became one of the platform’s most viewed performances. And when he did finally go on tour in October, he sold out his 15 date world tour in minutes, packing out Brixton’s O2 academy for three nights in a row. If you haven’t seen him live, you’ll have seen clips of him on TikTok and your mates will have mentioned him the pub. But where did Fred again suddenly come from?
Of course, if you go to Manchester or Leeds or Bristol, you might be thinking “Obviously I know who Fred again is!?!?” – he is, after all, the pinnacle for any wannabe bedroom DJ (except he’s actually good). But if you don’t go to a select group of rave-conscious universities and your parents haven’t shelled out £600 on decks, you might be wondering who on earth is this musician and what should I actually know about him.
Here is your one-stop shop guide to the 29-year-old producer and DJ to bring you up to speed:
Where is Fred again actually from?
Fred grew up in Balham in south-west London. The 29 year-old, who was born in 1993 went to Marlborough College. The Wiltshire boarding school is one of the most prestigious private schools in the country where boarding fees currently cost £42,930 per year.
Other alumni of the school include royalty such as Kate Middleton, Pippa Middleton, Princess Eugenie and high profile celebrities like Jack Whitehall. Fred joined the school in 2006 before leaving at the end of sixth form in 2011.
It’s reported he used to bunk off lessons to go and produce music. In an interview with The Guardian, he said: “I was fortunate enough to not even be slightly good at anything else.”
Currently Fred again lives along the River Thames on London’s Southbank.
How did Fred again get famous?
At the age of 16, Fred was introduced to Brian Eno. The legendary musician took him under his wing and mentored him honing his production skills. After two years Eno asked him to help work on two of his upcoming albums. Following this, the work quickly followed. First producing records for Stefflon Don and Roots Manuva, before shifting towards pop artists like Charlie XCX and Ellie Goulding.
via Instagram
By 2018, he had produced songs for Little Mix, Shawn Mendes and Burna Boy before landing his first UK number one single producing George Ezra’s Shotgun. Throughout 2019, almost 30 per cent of the number one singles in the charts were produced by Fred again. This was crowned off in 2020 with him becoming the youngest ever Producer of The Year at the Brit Awards.
It wasn’t until the pandemic that Fred again began to make in his own right as an electronic musician. Using samples from social media and voice notes, Fred again began producing rave-worthy hard hitting beats with everyday sounds.
His first two large-scale projects, Actual Life and Actual Life 2 were created during successive lockdowns and released in 2021. “I live with my best friend who is also a musician called Joy Anonymous, and we just spent most of our days in the flat making music and going for walks around a beautifully empty London,” he said.
“The thing that I kind of fell in love with is the feeling of making records that feel like a collaborative diary. At the beginning, I would just pull sounds from videos on my phone and random things from nights out and stuff like that. When my friends and I were out, I’d always be the guy filming random shit on my phone so that when I woke up all hungover, I had some funny souvenirs of the evening to scroll through.”
His lockdown success might go some way to explaining his dramatic rise. Curating an ever-growing collection of drum machine dance-floor fillers, his music was crying out for a return to raving.
Why do I keep hearing about this Boiler Room set?
Having never performed live beyond pop-up events, his July Boiler Room set has quickly taken on a status of its own amongst his fans. In the hour-long set, which has gone viral in lots of clipped versions on TikTok, not least when an excited fan accidentally cut the music, it shows Fred again at his infectious best as each song is built live in front of the baying audience.
He describes performing live as an “extension” of his work. “When I do a live show, I’ll try and bring together various set lists that tell the story as a bigger picture over the course of an hour. Fundamentally, the story of each show is told through the prism of [what’s happening] right now.
“For example, during the show, random videos from my camera roll will play on the screen. But for the last 10 minutes of the show, the camera will turn around and start filming the crowd. That’s a really important moment to me because it feels like that’s when we’ve caught up to the present tense.”
Featured image via @fredagainagainagainagainagain and YouTube.
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